House GOP Officials Likely to Be at Odds (Ethics Testimony)

[sabra]

http://www.abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=2602093

House GOP Officials Likely to Be at Odds
House GOP Officials Likely to Be at Odds in Ethics Testimony About Page Scandal

WASHINGTON Oct 24, 2006 (AP)— The House Republican campaign chairman and the speaker of the House are likely to be at odds this week as they testify about the handling of ex-Rep. Mark Foley's come-ons to male pages.

Rep. Tom Reynolds, R-N.Y., set to appear before the House ethics committee Tuesday, has said he warned Speaker Dennis Hastert about Foley last spring.

Hastert, expected to be questioned sometime this week, has said he doesn't remember that conversation.

A four-member ethics investigating panel is keeping key witnesses behind closed doors for hours as it tries to unravel conflicts over when and what Hastert and his staff learned about Foley's conduct and what they did about it.

[Jackpine Radical]

1. "At odds..." what a peculiar way to say

"perjuring their lying little asses off."

[dubyaD40web]

2. This is so fun to watch.

eom

[proudlibal]

9. yes

This is fun to watch, I just wish that I could enjoy it a little more. I am finding it hard to "let my guard down", or to quit waiting for the other shoe to drop. The republicans are wicked and crafty. I just don't know what Rove has up his sleeve in this last 2 weeks.:freak:

[twaddler01]

35. Agreed...

Just waiting for them to pull a quick one. You never know with these people...

[Cronus Protagonist]

36. Watch this then....

Your eyes may burn out, though :P

[Demit]

3. Ah, Tom Reynolds, the apologizer for other people not doing more.

Hastert, the I'm so powerful I didn't know what was going on so I'm not responsible guy. Clash of the Integrity Titans, here.

[MorningGlow]

33. What sickens me

is how many yard signs I see in support of this weenie. These idiots are actually going to VOTE for REYNOLDS? After THIS?

I love my state, I love my state, I love my state...but it sure would be nicer if western NY were a tad more blue than red...props to NYC for making us firmly blue.

[gratuitous]

4. Wow, this could be brutal except for one little thing

The Ethics Committee has to vote to make a referral of any charges, and since by House rule the committee is evenly split 3-3 between Republicans and Democrats, and a referral requires a majority vote, all those tie votes mean that this evidence gathering will be all that ever happens.

[civildisoBDence]

5. There's good reason for the 50/50 split--to prevent partisanship from

corrupting the ethics procedure.

Like so much in DC, the original intent of the overall design depends on the integrity of individuals.

Our federal system reminds me of a magnificent palace, inhabited by monkeys.

Newsprism

[gratuitous]

6. I agree

The Ethics Committee is the only committee (if I recall correctly) that by rule is split evenly between the parties. Every other committee is given a numerical advantage to the majority party. As you said, the ostensible goal is to make the Ethics Committee less prone to corruption, but in actual practice, it means that every 3-3 vote along strict party lines means nothing happens.

Although it's always possible that one of the witnesses will be such an egregious and offensive little weasel that one Republican will take exception to the insult to his or her intelligence. It is devoutly to be hoped.

[jmowreader]

31. Actually, it's 5-5

The current membership of the House Ethics Committee:

Doc Hastings (R-WA) (Chairman)
Judy Biggert (R-IL)
Lamar Smith (R-TX)
Melissa Hart (R-PA)
Tom Cole (R-OK)
Howard Berman (D-CA) (Ranking Minority Member)
Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-OH)
Gene Green (D-TX)
Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA)
Michael F. Doyle (D-PA)

If any of these five Publicans can be counted on to vote against the Speaker, I think it's Judy Biggert...who has the distinct disadvantage of having to run as a Publican from Hastert's own state.

I think we can get Doc Hastings too. Doc Hastings has the bad fortune, in this case, to represent pretty much the middle third of the state of Washington. He has one of the largest districts of any congressman in America, and the people who live in this moderately-populated area (10 counties in the Washington apple belt) don't think too highly of the kind of activity the Committee is investigating.

Who's left? A Publican from Texas, a Publican from Pennsylvania, and one from Oklahoma. The fact that this case is at its root a gay sex scandal puts Rep. Smith and Rep. Cole in a precarious position: these men represent people who absolutely hate gays. This is a "damned if you do and damned if you don't" situation for both men: they're honor-bound to vote to not refer because all the players in the scandal are Publicans, but if they vote to not refer they've got to go back to their districts and explain why they let a gay child molestor and all the people who were covering up for him go scot-free...a few days before the election. They're screwed even if they defer the hearings until after the election...if they wait until after November 7 then vote to not refer, the Democrats could beat these guys with Idi Amin on the ticket. (Publicans have been defeated by dead men before...ask the Crisco Kid.)

I don't know the demographics of Melissa Hart's district, so my prediction for right now is between 8-1 and 9-1 to refer.

[rodeodance]

7. well, looks like "someone' is NOT being 'ethical' with the ETHICS com.!!

[Zambero]

8. Reaganitis

Elephants never forget, they only pretend to do so as a matter of convenience!

[madrchsod]

10. what did tommy the bug boy know?

when did he know it?

[ponthedge]

11. Ethics?

In a washington congressional investigating panel?

Oxy-MORONS!

[newyawker99]

13. Hi ponthedge!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[yellowcanine]

12. When everyone is in CYA mode the truth will come out. And I suspect

when it does, Denny "I know nothing! Hastert will be on the short end of the truth meter stick.

[sunyasi]

14. Denny-boy

"Hastert, expected to be questioned sometime this week, has said he doesn't remember that conversation."

I wonder what Hastert is shitting his pants about more, this, or the matter of his takinbg a lot of money from the Turks?



:hide: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[Cheney Killed Bambi]

15. Hastert Testifies Before Foley Panel!!!

Surprise surprise:

House Speaker Dennis Hastert on Tuesday sat down with ethics investigators trying to pin down when he and his staff learned about ex-Rep. Mark Foley's come-ons to former male pages and what they did to stop it.

The timeline that Hastert and his staff have given conflicts with the accounts of others. Hastert, R-Ill., has said that he didn't find out about Foley until late September, when Foley's approaches to the former pages became public.

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/10/24/D8KV53C80.html

[BOSSHOG]

16. I don't remember being told anything about any emails.

In fact, could you refresh my memory Mr Chairman, who is this foley fellow?

[babylonsister]

17. The rethug mantra=I don't remember. nt

[KansDem]

19. Ronald Reagan perfected that response...

Q: Did you authorize the selling of missiles to the Iranians...?
RR: I don't remember...
Q: Did you authorize covert support for the Contras...?
RR: I don't remember...
Q: Did you pee this morning?
RR: I don't remember...

[Tight_rope]

26. You pretty much wrapped it up in a nutshell!

[Tight_rope]

27. You pretty much wrapped it up in a nutshell!

[jmowreader]

37. For Ronald Reagan, that was probably the truth

As we all remember, Reagan had Alzheimer's Disease for quite a bit of his tenure. He probably DIDN'T remember doing any of those things, including peeing this morning.

It's like the old and very bad joke, where Reagan goes to the doctor who gives him bad news and more bad news..."the bad news is you're a Republican, the other bad news is that you have Alzheimers." 'Well, at least I'm not a Republican.'

[RufusEarl]

18. This is a repug ethics panel, with one Dem.

what do you think will really happen? The last time this happened it was Tom Delay that was on the carpet, the repugs disbanded the ethics panel on that occasion.

We finally got rid of the hammer but it wasn't the ethics panel that done that, it was Ronnie Earl. So given the nature of how repugs handel ethics i'll bet they all walk, of course i could be wrong! Right!!!

[eleny]

20. I thought the Ethics committee was equal Dems and Rs

So, this panel isn't balanced equally?

[babylonsister]

22. There's 5 of each, per this site:

http://www.house.gov/ethics/CommitteeMembers.htm

[eleny]

25. That's my understanding

I can't imagine the Dems leaving just one of theirs on the panel that's interviewing on the Foley matter.

[Richard Steele]

32. This is not the FULL Ethics Committee holding these hearings.

It's just 4 members, which may have led to some confusion here:

SNIP: "A four-member subcommittee of the House ethics committee
is keeping key witnesses behind closed doors for hours
as it tries to unravel conflicts over when and what Hastert
and his staff learned about Foley's conduct and what they did about it"

However, no matter how many of them are actually
in the room and asking questions, I have to assume
that the FULL Committee will be reviewing the
testimony and voting on what action to take.

Key word being "assume". :shrug:

[eleny]

34. thanks for the clarification, dick!

[babylonsister]

21. Are you sure? Per this link, there's 5 Dems and 5 rethugs:

http://www.house.gov/ethics/CommitteeMembers.htm

[RufusEarl]

30. Perhaps they have balanced the ethics panel,

but when this Foley thing started their was only one dem on the panel. It has to be mentioned that when the Foley scandal broke the ethics committee had been disbanded, so perhaps the repugs did the right thing. By the right this i means, they were forced to do the right thing.

[mcscajun]

23. Cheney Killed Bambi

For posts in the Latest Breaking News forum, please edit your subject to match the headline of the article. Thanks.

[louis-t]

24. Remember Denny, blame it on the staff,

blame it on the staff,blame it on the staff,blame it on the staff,blame it on the staff,blame it on the staff,blame it on the staff.

[Monkeyman]

28. Hastert gave no new info

He was asked if he knew words is he said no

[AlinPA]

29. The "ethics committee" is a joke. He gave campaign money to one of the

republican members and at the press conference where the committee announced their "investigation", the chairman, a republican said "Denny Hastert is doing a fine job". Duh.

[annabanana]

38. Ethics Committee:, . . . . "Old Rules" vs "GOP Rules"

In the good old days, a tie in the Ethics Committee would automatically trigger a formal investigation. Now, under this (cough, cough) moral regime... a tie tables the investigations.

"How Con-veeeeeeen-ient"